Jet Food

Re:Jet Food (nysharks)

Sun, 26 Sep 2010 09:39:00 GMT

To get the most out of my trips I spent quite a few hours researching where to go and what to do. I even came up with a spreadsheet with an hourly schedule of what I plan to do. Of course this is all subject to change and I will re-work the plan during a trip.

For today the schedule was to spend the day in New Orleans by starting off the morning with some beignets at Cafe Du Monde, take out some muffulettas at Central Grocery, and then have lunch at Willie Mae's Scotch House. The rest of the afternoon would be spent back in the French Quarter with dinner plans at either Mother's or Crabby Jack's.

But figuring that I didn't want to waste a lot of time looking for parking by making two trips to the French Quarter, I decided to start the day in New Orleans first by having lunch at Willie Mae's and then drive into the French Quarter to walk around.

After reading the reviews on Willie Mae's, I planned to get there just before they opened at 11am as I didn't want to wait a long time on line nor have them run out of fried chicken. But I was up by 8am and was wondering what to do for the next few hours when I looked at my GPS and saw that I had programmed Laplace, Louisiana in it. Laplace is the Andouille sausage capital and was only about 20 minutes west of where I was staying. I made a few phone calls and found out that the meat markets out there were already open so I changed plans again and decided to head to Laplace.

When I drove out there I was actually looking for Jacob's World Famous Andouille but I turned into the wrong parking lot next door of a small strip mall. There I saw a large sausage man sign which looked awfully familiar. The sign was for Bailey's, another butcher shop that makes andouille sausage. When I went in, I then figured out why it looked familiar. Food Network personality Alton Brown had been there when he taped a segment of Feasting On Asphalt, a show that I really liked. Well if the place was good enough for Alton, I would get some of their andouille too.Andouille is a smoked sausage that is often used in Cajun recipes. Coming from the northeast, I was surprised to see what the real stuff looked like. You don't often see andouille sausage in the supermarkets back home and for that matter, I didn't see it in the supermarkets that I had been to on this trip. I thought the sausage would look similar to other Italian sausages or even a kielbasa but it was more darker and dense in texture. It kind of reminded me of those really good salami's you see in the specialty section of a grocery store. And even though they were shrink wrapped, the smell of garlic was just oozing out of the package. I bought one pound to bring back home with me, so I didn't get to try it yet. I had brought a cooler with me so I put the sausage in there as I made my trip back east to New Orleans and to Willie Mae's.

I got to Willie Mae's by 10:30am and found a parking space right in front. The restaurant is in a run down neighborhood but there was hardly anyone outside. Across the street from the restaurant looked like an abandon school and on the other corner was an empty lot. Being a bit paranoid after reading one of the reviews, I called the restaurant to see what their hours were for today. Someone said that they had gotten to the restaurant early only to wait an hour outside before they opened up. Another review had mentioned that people start lining up about 15 minutes before they open but only one other person showed up at 11am. Needless to say I was the first one in the door at 11am.

Everyone has raved about the fried chicken so I had to get that. I had a choice of a side dish and asked the waiter whether the red beans and rice was better or the butter beans and rice. He said the butter beans and so I went with that choice. He also mentioned that since they just opened up, they just started cooking and it may take a little bit longer for my food.

The restaurant is on the small side with 2 rooms and about 15 tables total in the place. It was a friday so I would have suspected that there would be a big lunch crowd but by 11:15am it was just me and another couple in the place. But by around 11:30am people just started pouring into the place and a line started forming by noon time.

As I waited for my meal, the waiter asked if I would like bread or a corn muffin. I chose the corn and he brought out a nice warm muffin. It looked like it was just baked and not just heated up. It had a nice grainy texture and was pretty good, but it didn't really have a strong corn flavor. I would even go as far to say it was kind of bland. I did enjoy eating it as I had to wait about 25 minutes for my fried chicken to come out.

When the fried chicken came out, it looked really good. It had a dark crispy coating on the outside and the chicken was juicy and moist on the inside and of course really hot just coming out of the oil. A lot of people liked the batter as it was different than other places I have had fried chicken like Stroud's in Kansas City or Price's in Charlotte. The batter kind of reminded me of tempura, light, crisp, and airy. It was nice and crunchy but did not have much seasoning. While it was tasty, I didn't get what all the fuss was about. If anything, the best part of the meal was the butter beans and rice. It had a nice creamy texture and complemented the fried chicken as the waiter had said.

People must really like it as the place was very busy and their prices are a little on the high side. The fried chicken was a little bit pricey considering the neighborhood, but what got me was that they charged for little things. They didn't mention it, but the corn muffin cost another 75 cents and the iced tea was $2 a glass, but they did not give you free refills. I thought charging for refills of iced tea in the deep South was sacrilege.

Overall it was an enjoyable meal and I would give them 3 stars out of 4 but in no way was that the best fried chicken I have ever eaten. The food was fine and the atmosphere was interesting and I would recommend someone to try it at least once, but I wouldn't be heading back there anytime soon. Especially when there are so many other places to eat in New Orleans.

After lunch, I headed to the French Quarter. The night before the NFL had their opening day in New Orleans when the Saints took on the Minnesota Vikings. They had a parade and concert in the French Quarter area that day but now they were busy breaking down the stage and seating from the festivities. This made for a congested drive through the Quarter and there were still plenty of Saints' fans walking around. I went to a parking lot and made my first stop at the Riverwalk.

The Riverwalk is a shopping mall right along the Mississippi river. The main reason I went there was to get out of the humid and heat of New Orleans but to also visit the Southern Food & Beverage Museum. The museum was kind of on the small side but had some interesting exhibits on the cuisines of New Orleans from Cajun to Creole to the po boy.

From there I walked around the Jackson Square and got an order of beignets at Cafe Du Monde. At first when they gave me the bag, I thought they had only given me one beignet and not an order of three. But I quickly opened up the bag and sure enough there were three but it looks like they had gotten smaller. I ate one and it was still great. Hot, light, chewy texture, and lots of powdered sugar on it make for a great treat.

I then walked across the street to Central Grocery to pick up 2 muffulettas to take home with me to New York. After spending a few hours in the French Quarter I headed back to the hotel. There I put the sandwiches away in my cooler and used the ice from the hotel to keep them chilled for the flight home tomorrow.

Later in the evening I went back to Crabby Jack's for dinner. This time they stayed open until their normal closing time of 5pm. I wanted to try their duck po boy. I like to eat duck and have never heard of a duck po boy before so this should be interesting. The place is a little on the run down side and is in an industrial area of New Orleans. The inside is decorated with all kinds of eclectic stuff. Like Bozo's, they had a sign on the wall saying that they did not have oysters. I guess the oyster problem was a lot bigger than you hear on the news.

It didn't take long before I got my duck po boy and I took it back to the hotel with me for my dinner. I had that and the rest of the beignets for dessert. The duck po boy was dressed and had plenty of duck in it, but it was shredded. The sandwich was good but the texture was more like pulled pork and I would have preferred chunks of duck meat. Also it was kind of messy as the meat would come oozing out of the bread. I would definitely go back but probably try another kind of po boy.

For more on the trips, I started a blog at: diningnation.blogspot.com

Re:Jet Food (plb)

Wed, 22 Sep 2010 10:18:51 GMT

Most of the small town BBQ places around Austin are closed on Sunday (except Southside Market). You mentioned fried chicken, then consider Tujague’s in N.O.

Re:Jet Food (kland01s)

Wed, 22 Sep 2010 09:33:06 GMT

Great report! I'm worn out from all of your traveling and eating!

Re:Jet Food (nysharks)

Wed, 22 Sep 2010 01:10:31 GMT

The plan for today was to hit an early lunch at The Shed in Ocean Springs, Mississippi, about 30 minutes east of Biloxi. This would give me plenty of time to take a leisurely drive back to New Orleans. The Shed is a barbecue place and again was highlighted on Drive-Ins, Diners, and Dives. It sounded good but I did have some apprehension about the place not because Guy Fieri did a segment on them but that they had about 3 other stores and were going to open a branch in Austin, Texas. It smelled of franchise. Still I am a sucker for good barbecue and it did sound interesting. The Shed in Ocean Springs is the original restaurant and the story goes that the original building was a shed and that they kept adding to it.

At first I wasn't sure if I was in the right area as the restaurant is located in a trailer park. It is right off the road and there are trees blocking the view but you can easily see the sign for the place. The parking lot is a gravel road but even though I got there before they opened, there were people already waiting to get in.

I walked around the outside of the restaurant as I waited for them to open and you can quickly tell that this is a fun place. They had plenty of tables and chairs for outdoor eating but they also had a small stage for musical acts that play there on the weekends. The fun doesn't stop outside but continues inside the restaurant.

When you enter the place, there are dollar bills stuck to the ceilings of the building. The bills are signed and sometimes they are taped to the ceiling, stapled to the ceiling, and quite often impaled on a plastic fork to the ceiling. Plus people have written on any spare piece of space on the ceiling, walls, and tables.

After doing some research, I decided to try their spare ribs with macaroni salad. I chose the macaroni because it is described on the menu as being a favorite and they ate it on Guy's tv show. I asked the cashier which other side dish that she would recommend and she said the baked beans.

It only took a few minutes to get my food. Sorry to say that the barbecue was only good. I was expecting much more but a lot of the nice smoked meat flavor that I like was absolutely drowned in their sauce. Plus their sauce was very much on the sweet side. This excess sweetness pertained to the baked beans as well. The food was tasty and I would recommend the place, but I wouldn't go out of my way again for just the food. I would give the place 3 out of 4 stars, but 2 1/2 for the food and another 1/2 star of the atmosphere. Sorry about the lack of pictures of the food, it was dark inside and the photos came out quite dark despite the use of a flash. Plus with all of the sauce on the ribs, you really couldn't see much of the meat.

After lunch, the original plan was to hang around the Biloxi area to hit another restaurant called Aunt Jenny's for their fried chicken before heading back west to New Orleans. I was also thinking of hanging out in the area due to the congestion that was happening in New Orleans. The Saints was playing in the NFL season opener and there were lots of festivities, parades, and street closings in the New Orleans area that I would rather avoid. I didn't know about this when I had planned my trip but the coverage on the Saints was all over the newspapers, tv, and radio in the area.

But after doing some sightseeing and walking around some casinos, I got bored and decided to head to New Orleans. My stomach wasn't going to mind missing out on some fried chicken. On the 90 minute drive back to New Orleans I did make a stop at a supermarket just to do some sightseeing. Next to the supermarket was a Chinese restaurant.

The Chinese restaurant was called 5 Happiness and they were offering a lunch buffet for only $6. The place was pretty small and a little worn down. There were about 6 customers eating at the time. I was still pretty full from The Shed and I only wanted to see what a Mississippi egg roll tasted like. It was kind of pricey, $3.50 for 2 egg rolls, but I placed my order anyway. The owner said that for a just a few dollars more I could have the buffet. I declined saying that I was just interested in a snack. She then went to the buffet table and put 3 egg rolls into a box and charged me $2.

I did not eat the egg rolls right away, instead I continued my drive but did stop at a place to get a bottled Barq's root beer. I have never seen Barq's in glass bottles before so I had to try one. I guess it shouldn't be too unusual as Barq's was invented in Biloxi. At that point I did try an egg roll and it was OK. Not very crispy on the outside but plenty of vegetables on the inside.

I got to New Orleans around 5pm and headed over to Crabby Jack's to get a roast duck po boy for dinner. But when I got there, they had closed early so they could watch the New Orleans Saint's home opener. The backup plan was to go to Bozo's for an oyster po boy.

It was kind of early for dinner and the place was not very crowded, plus I suspect that many people were away to watch the football game. I placed my order for the oyster po boy but was told that they didn't have any. Due to the BP oil spill, many oyster beds were still closed and they could not get oysters that met the quality that they demanded. They did try to use oysters from Washington but they said they weren't good enough.

As they explained to me the lack of oysters, the phone rang and they had to tell them that they had no oysters either. The lady then said that they have been getting quite a few calls about oysters lately since it was the beginning of oyster season again but they had to tell their customers no. She then went to the white board and wrote in big red letters, "No Oysters Today". Until recently they had been using frozen oysters that they had stockpiled but that supply was now gone.

I then decided to order a shrimp po boy "dressed" with lettuce, tomatoes, and may. Within 5 minutes they had one ready for me and I took the po boy with me to go. I checked into the hotel and feasted on the shrimp po boy and the rest of the egg rolls for my vegetable. The po boy was very good, but I did have my heart and stomach set for oysters but as I went around New Orleans, I found out that oysters were in scarce supply.

Re:Jet Food (CajunKing)

Tue, 21 Sep 2010 15:30:19 GMT

NYSharks
Low 90's in NOLA this time of year did you wear your sweater? Must have been a cold front going through that day!

Ahh there is nothing like LA in the summer, where the air is as thick as your gumbo.

Re:Jet Food (Nancypalooza)

Tue, 21 Sep 2010 14:15:25 GMT

Awesome start, nysharks! I've had that sinking feeling at a few tours of Confederate places as well, but then I've had the painted-up version presented too and that'll actually make you mad. Still don't think I've ever been to a place where the presentation was both comprehensive and honest.

I wonder if they got the flies from ArchieMcPhee.com?

The rule for banana pudding is there should be a cookie and a banana slice in every bite, but there are definitely exceptions. If you get to Charleston, they make a wonderful version at Jestine's Kitchen, but if it's something you would never order, they have other great desserts too. Glad you enjoyed your catfish; Mississippi should be doing it right. I think I've been to that buffet and it was kind of meh. Almost overwhelming in the array of choices, and some of it really well done. It's like Disney World--some folks absolutely love it and most folks will only need to do it once.

Re:Jet Food (nysharks)

Tue, 21 Sep 2010 00:24:37 GMT

The first food destination was the Deep South. I took a 6:55am flight from JFK airport to get to New Orleans. But NOLA was not going to be my first stop, I wanted to go to Mississippi. One reason for the trip was to be able to cross off another state on my list. This will mark my 47th state visited. The other reason was to try the delicious Gulf seafood, oil spill willing.

When I landed in New Orleans it was hot. Not super temperature hot but steamy, sweaty, sticky hot. The temperature was in the low 90's but it felt a lot worse. I haven't experienced this kind of heat in the Northeast in quite a while.

As soon as I got my rental car, I was off and driving east to Mississippi. I didn't have breakfast so I was pretty hungry, but I didn't stop until I got to my first food destination, The Blow Fly Inn in Gulfport, MS.

The Blow Fly Inn was highlighted in the Food Network show Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives, hosted by Guy Fieri. It looked like a fun place and they put little plastic flies on your food. I also used various web review sites to make sure that the place was OK.

The restaurant is kind of off the road. I was using my Garmin and when it had me go down some backroads I was thinking that I might have put in the wrong address. But at the end of the road, there were a clearing and there was the restaurant. It is located along the Bernard Bayou and
the building is up on stilts. Beneath the building is a dock/porch from which you could watch the world go by. It seemed pretty peaceful, but you could see they had the set-up for the place to be rocking in the evenings.

On the specials board, the soup of the day was cream of crabmeat, corn, bacon, and tomato. Since I like all of those ingredients I had to order the soup even though it was over 90 degrees outside. I also ordered a lunchtime special, the red beans and rice with catfish strips for $8.95. I wasn't really sure about the catfish strips since I don't see them too often in the northeast and I haven't eaten any in years. But the waitress said the regular portion of just red beans and rice with sausage was twice the size and I knew that and the soup would really be over doing it.

The soup was an enjoyable cream soup that was quite tasty, but I was disappointed in how little crab was in it. You could taste the crab but there was only about 2 chunks of crabmeat in the cup.

Next came a salad which comes with the luncheon special. I ordered it with a remoulade dressing. Standard iceberg lettuce salad with some nice pieces of cucumber and carrots. After that came the entree.

I was suprised at the portion size of the red beans and rice. The red beans were tender with chunks of sausage in it. On top of the rice were 5 strips of catfish. I am in no ways an expert on red beans and rice but I thought this version was a little too soupy. Maybe it is supposed to be that way but I prefer mine a bit thicker. But I was very much impressed with the catfish strips. They were lightly coated and had a nice clean flavor, not fishy at all and not greasy either.

Suffice to say the soup and the hearty red beans and rice was enough to fill me up, but the lunch also came with banana pudding for dessert. Not being a fan of bananas and feeling pretty well stuffed I took a few spoonfuls of the pudding. Again not being an expert on banana pudding I would say it was OK. But I have never ordered or thought about ordering this dessert before, so what do I know?

Overall the meal was very good and the price of the luncheon special was a very good deal. But I must say that I was kind of disappointed in the experience. One of the gimmicks of the restaurant was that they put little plastic flies on their food as an homage to their name. But there was nary a fly, plastic or real near my food. I asked the waitress about the lack of flies and she said that they had stopped doing it a few months ago. They did have a bowl of plastic flies near the cashier which you can take but they no longer put it on the food.

At first I thought it might be a safety issue with someone eating the fly and suing the restaurant but she said that was not the case. I later found out that their supplier of plastic flies had stopped making them. Seems that in California a law was passed prohibiting the use of the flies as they can be a choking hazard and the so the company stopped making them. The restaurant looked at other sources but the cost per fly was around 30 cents as opposed to pennies from the other company. The expense was too much so they stopped putting the flies on the food. I did take one from the cashier as I paid my bill.

Many tourists like to sightsee by going to museums, landmarks, statues, etc. I like to go to supermarkets. On the way to Biloxi, I stopped at a Rouse's, a regional chain as well as Winn-Dixie. There seemed to be more regional and local products in these grocery stores than I have seen in others around the country. And the seafood was quite fresh, especially the shrimp. But what caught my eye was some potato chips.

This was my fourth trip to the New Orleans area and I have developed a liking to Zapp's chips. Once if a while you see them up north and I will get them but here they were in numerous glory. One particular bag caught my eye, mostly with their eye-catching design but also because of the name of the flavor, Voodoo Gumbo chips. It was a limited edition chip and as Zapp's explains it on their bag:

No Zapp's isn't getting into the "Black Arts", it's just our new mystery "Limited Edition" flavor. Voodoo Gumbo flavor is a result of an accident. An employee was moving a pallet of spices off the top shelf and dropped it. While cleaning up, someone stuck their finger into the mixture of about 5 flavors and pronounced it great. We recreated it in our lab, and, like gumbo, it's an "everything in the kitchen" flavor.

Wonder if they re-created dropping the ingredients on the floor too...

The chips were actually pretty good. They are kettle chips and had a slight sweet flavor to it. The sweetness was not too much and I was glad to have bought the bag.

Before checking into my hotel in Biloxi, I stopped at Beauvoir, the last home of Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederacy. What was striking was not only the lovely building but that it was right along the ocean. I took a tour and being a Yankee you kind of wonder how would they present Davis. One wouldn't expect the tour to be too negative and they basically stuck with the history of the house and the biography of the Davis family that lived in the house. What kind of miffed me a bit was a video that they had in the gift shop in which they talked about the Civil War as the "lost cause". They never mentioned slavery at all.

I did make a brief stop at the beach to take a look at the Gulf waters. The beach had beautiful white clean sand with only a few people swimming in the water. I went to the water's edge and put my hand in the ocean. The water was very warm and no, I didn't feel any oil. They claim that the oil is gone and if it truly is, this waterfront area is one heck of a destination. I am kind of surprised that it isn't developed more.

I checked into the hotel after 6pm and after unpacking, went out to get some dinner. My mother had been to Biloxi on a bus tour and she recommended The Buffet at the Beau Rivage casino. The brother of a friend of mine also recommended the buffet so I decided to try that. They said that the food was good but that they offered lots of southern specialties.

Since it was the middle of the week, the price of the buffet was a few dollars cheaper than the weekend, but it still cost over $20. The place was fairly busy and I had to wait about 10 minutes for a table. They definitely had lots to choose from with dishes representing the southern, Italian, American, and even Asian cuisine. The food was good but it was not the best buffet I have ever had. The one dish that I liked the most was the fried chicken. At that price I would definitely not go back. But if they comp'd me a meal...

For more on the trips, I started a blog at: diningnation.blogspot.com

Re:Jet Food (nysharks)

Sun, 05 Sep 2010 10:45:14 GMT

RibDog

I'd make an early morning stop at Round Rock Doughnuts just outside Austin if I was there!

John

Shouldn't be a problem, it is on the way to Louie Mueller! Hmm, if they can make a burger out of Krispy Kreme doughnuts, why not a brisket sandwich out of Round Rock Doughnuts? Except for a few objections from my cardiologists, what would be wrong?

Re:Jet Food (RibDog)

Sun, 05 Sep 2010 10:35:31 GMT

I'd make an early morning stop at Round Rock Doughnuts just outside Austin if I was there!

John

Re:Jet Food (nysharks)

Sun, 05 Sep 2010 10:35:23 GMT

doggydaddy

How many days will you be in Austin? Threadgill's on any night is great, good music and food. Hut's is not too far away across the river and worth it.
For BBQ there are options, but I recommend planning on heading to Elgin. You could drive south for some of your wishes or maybe north and try the new Salt Lick. I say this as heading to Driftwood will take away time that you would want for other places. It's a great drive though.

mark

I will be in Austin for only 3 days. I have been to both Hut's and Threadgill's and enjoyed them both. Not sure if I will have enough time to fit one of them in. I was thinking of going to Moonshine for Sunday brunch and will be hitting Lockhart for BBQ. Also in the plan is Salt Lick and Louie Mueller. I also plan to see Junior Brown play at the Continental Club on Congress st.

Any opinions on Juan N Million and Taco Xpress, saw them featured on Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives? They looked kind of interesting but TV shows are like the side view mirror on your car, objects may appear larger than they really are. They are right now on my list only if I am in the area and am hungry. I dont' think the latter will be the case though.

Re:Jet Food (nysharks)

Sun, 05 Sep 2010 10:22:32 GMT

Foodbme

This web site has every restaurant worth knowing in NOLA:
http://www.nomenu.com/open/
You could spend a year in NOLA alone and not hit every good place.

Wow! Thanks, that is some list. You are right about New Orleans, there are so many places to try and not enough stomach space to fill.

Re:Jet Food (doggydaddy)

Sun, 05 Sep 2010 10:08:23 GMT

How many days will you be in Austin? Threadgill's on any night is great, good music and food. Hut's is not too far away across the river and worth it.
For BBQ there are options, but I recommend planning on heading to Elgin. You could drive south for some of your wishes or maybe north and try the new Salt Lick. I say this as heading to Driftwood will take away time that you would want for other places. It's a great drive though.

mark

Re:Jet Food (BillyB)

Sun, 05 Sep 2010 07:21:30 GMT

I would do Seattle over Portland any day.................

Re:Jet Food (Foodbme)

Sun, 05 Sep 2010 05:40:00 GMT

Here's my fasvorite in NOLA:
Pascal’s Manale
Creole Italian.
Uptown: 1838 Napoleon Ave.. 504-895-4877. Map.
Lunch Monday-Friday. Dinner Monday-Saturday.
Nice Casual
AE DC DS MC V
Website

This web site has every restaurant worth knowing in NOLA:
http://www.nomenu.com/open/
You could spend a year in NOLA alone and not hit every good place.

Re:Jet Food (kaszeta)

Sun, 05 Sep 2010 04:35:06 GMT

Good luck. I would have tried it this year, except that I am on a trip to Spain (which is a roadfooder's paradise, btw)

Re:Jet Food (wheregreggeats.com)

Sat, 04 Sep 2010 06:37:22 GMT

Good luck. We'll be watching.

Re:Jet Food (nysharks)

Sat, 04 Sep 2010 02:03:04 GMT

Nancypalooza

When are you doing this? And what a cool idea!

I am still working on the schedule but the Jet Blue program runs from Sept. 7 through Oct. 6th. The research on the different cities is quite daunting. Besides using this site and many other websites for food tips, I even got some good tips from the Jet Blue customer service center which is based out of Salt Lake City. I didn't know that Mexican cuisine was big there. I hope to be able to blog about the trips here.

Re:Jet Food (kland01s)

Fri, 03 Sep 2010 12:05:38 GMT

Amtrak has done something like this in the past too. I sure would be tempted!

Re:Jet Food (Nancypalooza)

Fri, 03 Sep 2010 12:00:24 GMT

When are you doing this? And what a cool idea!

Jet Food (nysharks)

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 23:26:42 GMT

Jet Blue is offering an "All you can jet" ticket. The ticket allows you to fly anywhere Jet Blue goes to in the U.S. for a month. The cost is $700 and the offer sold out in 3 days. I took the plunge and got a ticket. The plan is to visit Salt Lake City, Portland (OR), New Orleans, Biloxi, and Austin. My list of places to visit at this time are:

Salt Lake City: Crown Burger, Astro Burger, Red Iguana, Rico Mexican Market, and Navajo Hogan
Portland: Voodoo Doughnuts, Old Country Sausage, Jim Dandy Drive-In, Stanich's, Superdog, Dan & Louis Oyster Bar
Biloxi: Blow Fly Inn, White Cap Seafood, The Shed, The Buffet at Beau Rivage Casino
New Orleans: Central Grocery, Cafe Du Monde, Willie Mae's, Domilise's
Austin: Smitty's, Louie Mueller, Threadgill's, Salt Lick, Kruez, Hut's

I probably won't have the time nor the stomach to visit all of these places, but I would be interested in hearing your suggestions and opinions.